Why, oh why do I do this?

More Cards, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

Here are our friends and family cards for this year... well three of them. :)

I got the idea from the December edition of Family Fun magazine (good magazine if you're a mom with older than baby kids and are ready to slit your wrists at the idea of ONE MORE article about baby skin issues or developmental stages for the first year... they really just regurgitate all the topics year after year, I swear). Anyway, Family Fun has things to do and make and stuff like that which if you're a wee bit craftsy like we are, is a wonderful find (a doctor's office find, no less!).

These are a family of reindeer, one print per member who can breathe air outside my womb (Bunny suggested a teeny print for Cole, but it feels jinxy to me). I did mine first, then basically played amateur fingerprint taker for the kids and Paul, bless his impatient heart, sucked it up for 3-5 mins to appease me and put his thumb to paper about 40 times. I glued on the eyes and Bunny put on the noses, fretting much about who to make 'Rudolph' on each card (strangely, she seems to be Rudy a LOT, hmmmmmm!). Then I let it all dry and now I am putting on antlers (varying sizes, of course, since a fawn of Carter's size would only have weeny beginner antlers and Paul's are obviously more developed--yes, I spend time and brain energy thinking about these things). Since they're homemade, I have to actually write in them, so that's the slow going part, as Carter likes to crawl onto me and scream "I draw!" and grab at things every time I think I have a moment to do a card. Then I spend time figuring something he *can* draw and somehow I only get one or two finished a day. Where does the time go? Oh yeah... kids.

I love home made cards, since it seems everyone else is more wise to the expedience of photo cards (which are great, too), but they just are not as nice on the mantle as the real deal cards. Then I can enclose a photo of the kids for those who'd actually appreciate one and those who really could give a crap about owning some strange child's photo has a real card to enjoy.

But this is time consuming, I tell you. I always think something will be so much simpler than it is and bite off too much. It would take me a day to make these were it not for, oh, those kids and being a million weeks pregnant. ;)